Episode 59:: Putting the L back in LP

Since its invention in 1948, the LP, or long-playing album, was the primary vehicle for recorded Jazz consumption and enjoyment until 1988. Not only does this 40-year span account for the most artistically diverse period in the history of Jazz (the titles for most prolific, most popular, and perhaps most innovative are all, at least conventionally, ascribed to the pre-LP ear of 78 rpm records), the LP also offered something impossible for 78s, regardless of stylistic innovation or commercial appeal: LPs allowed for longer tunes.

No more were aspiring Jazz composers restricted to 3:00 song-forms, short solos, and other technical limitations of a 10" disc spinning at 78 rotations per minute. By increasing the diameter to 12" and slowing rotation down to just 33 and 1/2 rotations per minute, each side could now accommodate 20:00 of music. 40:00 per album! This required more music for each release, but it also allowed for individual songs to be much longer. A tune could develop. Solos could stretch out. Everyone Could Get Their Own Solo!

This edition of WSRP is in no way a history of the LP, a catalogue of its great innovations, or a highlight of those special moments that have made the vinyl LP the greatest jazz instrument of all time (sorry, Cornet). Instead, it's a simple celebration by way of playing a few particularly nice cuts that simply wouldn't have been possible without the L introduced by the LP.

Audio

Playlist

1. Bobby Timmons - Lela - Workin' Out
2. Yusef Lateef - Happyology - Jazz for the Thinker
3. Andrew Hill - Siete Ocho - Judgement!
4. Kenny Barron - Two Areas - Peruvian Blue
5. Don Pullen - Kadji - Tomorrow's Promises
6. Freddy Hubbard - Birdlike - Ready for Freddy
7. Tony Williams - Love Song - Spring

::WSRP:: If this thing really catches on, perhaps all webradioblogs will henceforth be abbreviated 'WSRPs.' Then you can one day record a show on your holocrystal about putting the WSR back in the WSRP.